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Adam Wilt wins Lincoln Speedway season opener

Adam Wilt is Lincoln Speedway's first winner of 2014 season

News service reports

Posted:
03/15/2014 06:17:03 PM EDT

Adam Wilt works hard to keep his car off the wall during a heat at Lincoln Speedway on Saturday. Wilt won the Icebreaker 30 A Main race by 1.29 seconds for his second opening-day win in three years. (Mike Zortman —For The Evening Sun)

Adam Wilt claimed his second opening day victory in three years Saturday at Lincoln Speedway.

"On opening day, you bring all your best stuff. You even wear your new underwear," Wilt said after the win, according to a news release.

His underwear wasn't the only thing new in the Wide Open Motorsports team. Well-known mechanic Lee Stauffer joined the team during the winter months. And he used some hand signals Adam didn't quite understand during a mid-race caution.

"I knew I had a good car from the beginning and I knew I had to power around those guys or they would have held me up," Wilt said. "But as soon as I got in front in clean air, I saw my new crew chief Lee (Stauffer) come out under the caution doing hand signals. I didn't know what they meant. I don't know if I'm going too crazy on the top and I need to slow myself down or what. I figured I did the right thing."

Wilt started fourth and grabbed the lead from outside front-row starter Glenndon Forsythe on the second lap. After a caution for Cory Haas, who hit the outside wall on lap four, Wilt paced the field until seventh-starting Brian Montieth took the lead on lap eight.

Billy Dietrich and Robbie Kendall brought out the caution flag with a joint spin on turns one and two of lap 11, at which time fifth-place Danny Dietrich went to the pits with a flat.

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Wilt reclaimed the lead from Montieth on the restart and was doing his best to hold him off when Montieth hit the wall in turn one of lap 14. Montieth suffered only a flat tire and returned to action.

The race went non-stop the rest of the way, with Wilt holding off Alan Krimes and J.J. Grasso through heavy lapped traffic over the final stages of the race. Wilt's final margin of victory in his fourth career Lincoln win was 1.29 seconds over Krimes, with Grasso, polesitter Kyle Moody and Forsythe completing the top five.

"This is a great win for a new team. But we don't want to set expectations too high right now," Wilt said. "We just want to go as we go and do what we can do. Starting position was a key factor, but I'll take a win any day."

Grasso, Montieth and Krimes won the heats, and Scott Fisher won the consolation.